Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Amy. It is now 11 in the morning and we have a
Yazmin Mehdi: quorum. I'd like to call this regular meeting of
Yazmin Mehdi: the Seattle Public Library Board of Trustees to order.
Yazmin Mehdi: And now can we approve the agenda? Assuming there are no changes,
Yazmin Mehdi: may I hear a motion to approve the agenda as published?
Tali Hairston: Motion to approve.
Bendixen, Carmen: Second.
Yazmin Mehdi: All in favor, please say aye.
Bendixen, Carmen: Kai.
Tali Hairston: Kai.
Yazmin Mehdi: I.
Yazmin Mehdi: That motion passes. Let's move on to public comment.
Yazmin Mehdi: As noted at the top of the agenda, the library board is accepting public
Yazmin Mehdi: comment that is directed to matters on the agenda by email,
Yazmin Mehdi: in person at the Central Library and in this remote meeting.
Yazmin Mehdi: Is there any public comment, Amy?
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: No one is present at the Central Library and no one sent public comment by email.
Tom Fay: Chief.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: No one has signed up in Q&A, but I'm not sure actually that I opened
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: it. So if you would permit me to open it and
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: then see if anyone signs up in the next couple of minutes, if they don't,
Tom Fay: Ohh.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: we can close it.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yep, let's do that.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Okay, thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, I think while we wait, we can move on to the consent agenda.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Yep.
Yazmin Mehdi: So we have a consent agenda that includes minutes from our March meeting,
Yazmin Mehdi: the March financial report, and the unusual thing is an updated
Yazmin Mehdi: version of the fourth quarter or annual 2025 levy report with
Yazmin Mehdi: corrections as noted in the attached memo. If no one has changes to these documents,
Yazmin Mehdi: may I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as published?
Tali Hairston: Motion to approve as adopted.
Tali Hairston: Edited.
Bendixen, Carmen: Second.
Yazmin Mehdi: All in favor, please say aye.
Ron Chew: Kai.
Tali Hairston: Ave.
Bendixen, Carmen: Bye.
Yazmin Mehdi: Kai.
Faith Pettis: Hi.
Yazmin Mehdi: Oh, great. Ron's here. Good to see you, Ron.
Faith Pettis: And Faith as well. Sorry, we've been in we've been in the public
Ron Chew: Yeah, I've been here.
Faith Pettis: area for a while.
Yazmin Mehdi: Oh, I'm sorry. So did you vote yes, Fay?
Tali Hairston: Oh.
Faith Pettis: I voted yes and I was present for the other prior vote too.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay.
Faith Pettis: Yes, on that, yeah.
Ron Chew: Me as well.
Yazmin Mehdi: And would you both have voted yes on the approval of the agenda?
Faith Pettis: Yes.
Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: Correct.
Ron Chew: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: Very good. Okay, so for the record, we have unanimous votes on approval of
Yazmin Mehdi: the agenda and approval of the consent agenda. Great. Thank you all.
Yazmin Mehdi: Did either of you, Ron or Faith, have any comments regarding any of those
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Yeah.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: votes?
Ron Chew: Oh.
Yazmin Mehdi: OK.
Yazmin Mehdi: In that case, let's move on to the Chief Librarian
Yazmin Mehdi: report. Over to you, Tom.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: real quick. Sorry, Yazmin. I did open the Q and A.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Nobody has signed up for public comment, so I think we can close that section out.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, so moving on from public comment and into
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Acq.
Yazmin Mehdi: the Chief Librarian report.
Tom Fay: And for the sake of time, we are not having a Chief Librarian
Tom Fay: report today, although I will draw your attention to
Tom Fay: the two reports filed from Capital Improvement and Building Maintenance.
Tom Fay: And we also had a, sorry, my notes keep slipping here.
Tom Fay: I also had another one from our collections and access services team,
Tom Fay: which was a really good explanation about how they're managing the various accounts,
Tom Fay: the account cleanups that we're going through,
Tom Fay: how that really helps patrons get back into the good graces.
Tom Fay: But it's also very important work that's not
Tom Fay: mentioned here that we are cleaning get this all up so that when we have the ILS
Tom Fay: migration, things will, we're not carrying bad data over.
Tom Fay: So in that case, many good pieces of data points in that
Tom Fay: one as well. And I think you can see from our CIP and
Tom Fay: building maintenance, the amount of work that those teams do
Tom Fay: every single day.
Tom Fay: Maintaining our spaces.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yes, absolutely. And I want to give just a moment to see
Yazmin Mehdi: if any of my colleagues want to reflect or remark on either one of those system
Yazmin Mehdi: reports.
Yazmin Mehdi: In which case I will. Tom, you're absolutely right that the CIP
Yazmin Mehdi: report is very important because of the incredible amount of work that's going on
Yazmin Mehdi: in that team that that team is conducting.
Yazmin Mehdi: One of the things I wanted to reflect on is just how quickly university is coming
Yazmin Mehdi: back online after having been out for the seismic and HVAC work.
Yazmin Mehdi: I don't know how you guys do it, but I think what it proves is that
Yazmin Mehdi: there's a tremendous amount of really good planning that goes
Yazmin Mehdi: goes into actually starting that work. But to have that come online so quickly,
Yazmin Mehdi: I think it's what, just over a year of it being out,
Yazmin Mehdi: like that's just remarkable for a Carnegie building and what was
Yazmin Mehdi: unreinforced masonry and reinforcing it.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I just want to note that for anyone who might be listening.
Yazmin Mehdi: The other thing I noted, Tom, your teams do a great job of pointing out
Yazmin Mehdi: how their work fits into strategic plan goals,
Tom Fay: What?
Yazmin Mehdi: but I did notice the CIP one didn't.
Yazmin Mehdi: did not have at the top what strategic plan goals are being addressed,
Yazmin Mehdi: and I have no doubt that they are addressing them.
Yazmin Mehdi: So just for future to include that, because I think it's really,
Yazmin Mehdi: it's a great way for us to track the strategic plan implementation.
Yazmin Mehdi: The other thing I had a question about is
Yazmin Mehdi: the CIP report mentioned a level 2 remodel,
Yazmin Mehdi: and I'd love to hear more about what is going into that, not necessarily today,
Yazmin Mehdi: but at some future moment.
Yazmin Mehdi: You all, colleagues, will remember that the automated
Yazmin Mehdi: materials handling system used to be on the 2nd floor and now we have this new
Yazmin Mehdi: facility which Faith just went to visit and was impressed by.
Yazmin Mehdi: So we have this second floor that
Yazmin Mehdi: has some space that I know Tom and his team have good plans for,
Yazmin Mehdi: but I love to hear about it. And the last thing I wanted to note from
Yazmin Mehdi: the collection system report is that thanks to clearing of or unsuspending
Yazmin Mehdi: accounts,
Yazmin Mehdi: We now have 95% of patrons with full access to the library.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I wanted to note that because the library,
Yazmin Mehdi: under Tom's leadership and also MTs, has made a concerted effort to ensure
Yazmin Mehdi: that people have access
Yazmin Mehdi: even if they can't pay late fines, for example. And why is that important?
Yazmin Mehdi: Well, in a down economy, people have to be able to access
Ron Chew: Group.
Yazmin Mehdi: resources in order to get jobs or make a pivot in their career or, you know,
Yazmin Mehdi: find housing. And if we
Yazmin Mehdi: keep people from those free resources because of fines they can't pay, then,
Yazmin Mehdi: you know, we're sort of undermining the goal of the
Yazmin Mehdi: public library system. So I think sometimes people forget that
Yazmin Mehdi: not everyone has an Amazon account or can pay for the resources that they need.
Ron Chew: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: and the library fills a really important need in that way. So, kudos.
Tom Fay: I would also to that note, Yazmin, I'd like to point out that Bo Kinney,
Tom Fay: who is the Circulation Services Manager who submitted the report,
Tom Fay: also leads up what we call the Lending Committee, TLC for short, and they have
Tom Fay: And my whole time here of over 11 years have been very focused on how they
Tom Fay: continue to reduce barriers to everyone. Every time they meet,
Tom Fay: they're looking at how the processes can be simplified,
Tom Fay: barriers are removed so people can sign up for cards.
Tom Fay: They do amazing work, often without a lot of comment about or
Tom Fay: noted about the work they do, but they've done great work over the
Tom Fay: years. And they are the reason we have Fine Free.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: That's awesome. Tally, I see your hand.
Tali Hairston: Yeah, a question for Tom. Tom, how far will Columbia's,
Tali Hairston: it says architectural design continues for Columbia.
Tali Hairston: How far will that, how far will the work in Columbia go
Tali Hairston: before we pause for the new levy to kick in if it's approved?
Tom Fay: We'll probably get as much of the planning done as possible,
Tom Fay: just so that when the levy is approved, we can move forward without delay.
Tom Fay: We don't want to have any delays in this one getting completed.
Tali Hairston: Thank you.
Tom Fay: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: Good question, Tally. Thank you. The last thing I want to say before we
Yazmin Mehdi: move on, we don't always get to talk about the
Yazmin Mehdi: press links at the end of the board packet,
Yazmin Mehdi: but there was one that I just wanted to note, which talked about a resource list
Yazmin Mehdi: that librarians put together to support the work being presented at Seattle
Yazmin Mehdi: Repertory Theater called Appropriate. And this way of tying in to the local
Yazmin Mehdi: arts community is something that staff does on a regular basis and it
Yazmin Mehdi: I just think it's so beautiful to see this connection that library staff make
Yazmin Mehdi: to supporting the local, you know, arts and culture sector.
Yazmin Mehdi: And that's just one example, and not just obviously the arts and
Tom Fay: No.
Yazmin Mehdi: culture sector. But I just think that's remarkable.
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: and really great thinking on the part of the staff that put that together.
Yazmin Mehdi: I'll pause for a second. I'm not seeing Ron's face. Ron,
Yazmin Mehdi: is your camera not on?
Tom Fay: Is on.
Yazmin Mehdi: Oh, maybe it's just for some reason you're on
Bendixen, Carmen: You might have to go to page, page two, yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: my side.
Yazmin Mehdi: I see him. Okay, Ron, so I can't actually see you.
Yazmin Mehdi: You're not showing up on my first page. So if you have any comments,
Yazmin Mehdi: just like speak up.
Ron Chew: OK, will do. I trust me, I'm here. I think I'm here.
Yazmin Mehdi: You're here. Oh, yay. Now you showed up on my first page
Tom Fay: Digby.
Yazmin Mehdi: because you spoke probably. Okay, cool. All right. Thanks all. Tom,
Yazmin Mehdi: now we can move on to the integrated library system update.
Tom Fay: Yes, and I believe for this, we're bringing Charles Wesley,
Tom Fay: our library technology officer, and Khamis forward.
Tom Fay: Khamis is our project manager on this massive effort,
Tom Fay: and they'll give us an update as to where they're at in this process, because we
Tom Fay: Still have the goal of making this transition by the fall,
Tom Fay: so I'll turn it over to Charles and Khamis.
Charles Wesley: Hey, thank you, Tom. Good afternoon, everybody, or good morning, I guess so.
Charles Wesley: We're happy to be here to give you an update on the integrated library system
Charles Wesley: project. It's been a minute since we brought this
Charles Wesley: forward to you. A lot has happened. A lot more is going to happen between now
Charles Wesley: and go live. So we wanted to bring this back to you so
Charles Wesley: that you kind of can get
Charles Wesley: your bearings a little bit on how we got to where we are,
Charles Wesley: and then we will come back more frequently between now and go live to
Charles Wesley: provide you with additional updates and information about the progress on this
Charles Wesley: project. This is a levy funded project from the
Charles Wesley: prior levy, so we are finishing up some of the
Charles Wesley: work that we had committed to in the previous levy as we move into the next
Charles Wesley: levy. Khamis is going to provide you a high
Charles Wesley: level update on this. He recently joined the organization and
Charles Wesley: is doing a great job at helping to facilitate this project.
Charles Wesley: And so without further ado, I'll hand it over to Khamis to share some
Charles Wesley: more info on this.
Khamis Hammoudeh: Good morning, everyone. I'm excited to be here and provide you
Khamis Hammoudeh: all with an update on what the team has been hard at work with.
Khamis Hammoudeh: So I'm going to pull up actually some visuals because I'd like to use them to
Khamis Hammoudeh: just give you an overview of what our timeline is looking like.
Khamis Hammoudeh: and guide our conversation. It's going to be a quick update though.
Khamis Hammoudeh: Wonder if the update will be quicker than it takes for PowerPoint to load.
Khamis Hammoudeh: Just give it a second.
Charles Wesley: Dramatic pause.
Khamis Hammoudeh: He.
Tom Fay: I can see it on my end, honey, so I don't know if it's showing for
Tom Fay: everyone else.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah, we can, or I can see it.
Tom Fay: Yep.
Khamis Hammoudeh: There we go. I think it's just fine being a little
Khamis Hammoudeh: slow, but I got it to come through. Okay, so as Charles said,
Khamis Hammoudeh: I'm the program manager in IT that's leading this,
Khamis Hammoudeh: but a lot of the work has been done across the groups at the library.
Khamis Hammoudeh: So we're going to cover three things, just kind of some recent wins and what
Khamis Hammoudeh: our current focus is, and then we'll dive into just what our
Khamis Hammoudeh: implementation timeline is looking like and talk about.
Khamis Hammoudeh: About our training plan, which has just been pinned down,
Khamis Hammoudeh: which will give you some time to ask some questions if you have any towards the end.
Khamis Hammoudeh: So, recent wins and current focus. So, we kicked off kind of the RFP process
Khamis Hammoudeh: last summer in July and went out and we got a couple of submissions and.
Khamis Hammoudeh: teams across circulation, collection, which includes all of the folks in
Khamis Hammoudeh: processing and acquisitions and cataloging,
Khamis Hammoudeh: went through and evaluated the vendors who submitted proposals,
Khamis Hammoudeh: and we had a matrix that we used to score them,
Khamis Hammoudeh: and Polaris was chosen as our preferred vendor,
Khamis Hammoudeh: and we went in and negotiated the contract and got that signed.
Khamis Hammoudeh: And executed beginning in January is when we actually started our execution of the
Khamis Hammoudeh: project. Since then, we've been really busy.
Khamis Hammoudeh: We've started to document our workflows that are our current state workflows
Khamis Hammoudeh: across circulations and collections. We've had a business analyst come in and
Khamis Hammoudeh: support us and actually sit down with staff to understand.
Khamis Hammoudeh: how they use the existing ILS, which is the nerve center of our
Khamis Hammoudeh: collection and pain from data, and really get to know what their pain
Khamis Hammoudeh: points are with the existing ILS. And then we've just gotten access to an
Khamis Hammoudeh: early Polaris demo environment, and Polaris is the new ILS product that
Khamis Hammoudeh: we're going with. It's cloud-based, so instead of...
Khamis Hammoudeh: you know, circulation staff using an application
Khamis Hammoudeh: that looks like it was born out of Windows 95.
Khamis Hammoudeh: They will be using a browser to interact with patron and collection information
Khamis Hammoudeh: and with the public in front of them. They'll actually be able to open up
Khamis Hammoudeh: multiple tabs. So our current focus is...
Khamis Hammoudeh: Right now, we're working on data mapping. Tom mentioned a little bit of the report
Khamis Hammoudeh: that came out from the TCS team, the collections team,
Khamis Hammoudeh: on some of the inventory work we did. We're really looking at what kind of
Khamis Hammoudeh: cleanup can we do as part of this migration. A lot of,
Khamis Hammoudeh: we see kind of an opportunity here on.
Khamis Hammoudeh: some of our data cleanup, and we're working on our integration
Khamis Hammoudeh: plans. How do we make sure that nothing goes off,
Khamis Hammoudeh: you know, nothing weird happens when we integrate
Khamis Hammoudeh: with the sorter, when we integrate with all of the various
Khamis Hammoudeh: services that our patrons are used to using, and we're designing our training.
Khamis Hammoudeh: So we have an understanding of what our training content is going to look like.
Khamis Hammoudeh: but how we actually fan that out and the materials that staff uses to train other
Khamis Hammoudeh: staff in branches, we're starting the design of that now.
Khamis Hammoudeh: So that's kind of our current focus. Halfway through the presentation,
Khamis Hammoudeh: this is our timeline. So I just wanted to give you an overview
Khamis Hammoudeh: of where we are. We are exiting the discovery phase.
Khamis Hammoudeh: We are starting that data mapping and looking at our first data load.
Khamis Hammoudeh: We actually
Khamis Hammoudeh: pulled out the data from our current ILS and successfully got it in the Polaris
Khamis Hammoudeh: data format. But now we have to do that data mapping
Khamis Hammoudeh: of like, oh, we have 400 collection codes. We want to narrow those down to over 100.
Khamis Hammoudeh: How do we do that? Which ones map to what? So that's the process we're in right now.
Khamis Hammoudeh: and we're entering that development phase, which in May,
Khamis Hammoudeh: we're going to be having our vendor come on site and tell us, hey,
Khamis Hammoudeh: you used to do it this way, here's a better way to do it with our new
Khamis Hammoudeh: ILS, or here's a streamlined way, or you have three options,
Khamis Hammoudeh: which one do you want to go with? That's where we'll be configuring those
Khamis Hammoudeh: workflows. And then later this summer,
Khamis Hammoudeh: we will begin our testing. So once we actually have all that data
Khamis Hammoudeh: mapped and it starts to show up in an early version of our system,
Khamis Hammoudeh: library staff will be going in there and looking at, did everything map correctly?
Khamis Hammoudeh: What kind of changes do we want to do before we do our cut over in September,
Khamis Hammoudeh: starting the...
Khamis Hammoudeh: week of Labor Day. The Labor Day weekend is when we'll begin
Khamis Hammoudeh: our cutover, which will take down our old ILS,
Khamis Hammoudeh: pull out the data from it, get it in the new format,
Khamis Hammoudeh: and put it into the new ILS, and there will be, you know,
Khamis Hammoudeh: some disruptions to patrons during that time,
Khamis Hammoudeh: but we're working on a matrix of like what the patron impact will be.
Khamis Hammoudeh: so that we communicate that out ahead of time.
Khamis Hammoudeh: And that'll be limited in duration to that month of September. So training,
Khamis Hammoudeh: that's really what our focus is now, is how do we design our training?
Khamis Hammoudeh: There's A multi-prong approach here. It's really being designed now,
Khamis Hammoudeh: and it's going to emphasize kind of practical confidence,
Khamis Hammoudeh: not like memorization of the UI. So.
Khamis Hammoudeh: It's going to be role-based, so folks that are actually in the ILS for
Khamis Hammoudeh: the majority of their job, like catalogers,
Khamis Hammoudeh: will get hands-on training from our vendor to see how the system works.
Khamis Hammoudeh: Folks that are less in, you know, in the ILS 100% of their job,
Khamis Hammoudeh: like our circulation staff, they're in there a lot.
Khamis Hammoudeh: but they're also dealing with patrons and walking around kind of the floor and
Khamis Hammoudeh: moving materials around. They will be trained by Polaris Peer
Khamis Hammoudeh: Champions, which is a set of folks that are being
Khamis Hammoudeh: nominated by managers across all 27 branches in Central,
Khamis Hammoudeh: various teams in Central.
Khamis Hammoudeh: Those peer champions will come into Central for a full day of training,
Khamis Hammoudeh: and then they will take material that will create together as a group into the
Khamis Hammoudeh: branches in the August time frame, the July and August time frame,
Khamis Hammoudeh: to train staff ahead of go live so people can have some access.
Khamis Hammoudeh: to training materials before we go live. And then of course,
Khamis Hammoudeh: we're going to have ongoing support because as much as we can do to prepare
Khamis Hammoudeh: people, people are going to jump in that first
Khamis Hammoudeh: day and be like, oh, wait, how do I do this?
Khamis Hammoudeh: And there'll be quick little videos that are like 90 seconds that they can watch
Khamis Hammoudeh: for how to look up a patron record that they can consume just in time when that.
Khamis Hammoudeh: kind of stuff happens, but we'll also have office hours for more
Khamis Hammoudeh: complex issues that are happening that we see once we go live.
Khamis Hammoudeh: So that's kind of our training plan in a nutshell.
Khamis Hammoudeh: There are some additional resources that I'm happy to share out with you.
Khamis Hammoudeh: We just had a staff update that went in a little bit more detail onto how that
Khamis Hammoudeh: training plan is.
Khamis Hammoudeh: panning out and more detail on the timeline for if you're curious about what
Khamis Hammoudeh: some of those boxes were that we talked about and then the project SharePoint
Khamis Hammoudeh: site. So thank you for having me. Happy to take any questions you may have.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Khamis. Charles, back to you.
Charles Wesley: Yeah, thank you, Khamis for sharing and just for everybody
Charles Wesley: who's listening, there is an awful lot of work that has
Charles Wesley: gone into getting us to this point that has been across the organization.
Charles Wesley: And so I just want to recognize and thank everybody who has put so much time and
Charles Wesley: effort into getting us to this point.
Charles Wesley: Other folks that haven't been as involved in this process are going to be more
Charles Wesley: involved and we'll see more of this as the training comes forward and I'm really
Charles Wesley: looking forward to having more people be able to put their hands on and work on
Charles Wesley: this. So there will be more updates for you all,
Charles Wesley: but I just want you all to hear that we appreciate all the work that has been put
Charles Wesley: into getting us to this point and
Charles Wesley: I'm open to any questions or feedback you all have,
Charles Wesley: either in regards to where we've gotten to date,
Charles Wesley: but also as we come back to you for future updates,
Charles Wesley: if there are specific things that you would like us to be sure to include in
Charles Wesley: our update to you all, we're happy to incorporate that into our
Charles Wesley: presentations.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks, Charles. I see Ron has a question.
Ron Chew: Yeah, I'm curious, when this new system has been implemented
Ron Chew: at other public libraries, what's been, I mean, are there any implications,
Ron Chew: apart from the training, are there any implications in terms of
Ron Chew: actually needing to hire new staff, people with specific skills to kind of
Ron Chew: Be at the administrative level.
Charles Wesley: So it is an established system that a lot of libraries have used,
Charles Wesley: and while our old system is old, the new system is not like light years
Charles Wesley: different. I think that there are going to be
Charles Wesley: different ways in which we work, and so that will definitely, I think,
Charles Wesley: impact some of our workflows.
Charles Wesley: On the technology side, it's going to change how some of our
Charles Wesley: things move. And so we are looking at how we can
Charles Wesley: implement newer technologies or different approaches to accomplish a lot of the
Charles Wesley: same work. And so we will look for some of those
Charles Wesley: types of skills and abilities in new hires.
Charles Wesley: But in terms of needing dedicated new positions or reclassifying or
Charles Wesley: restructuring,
Charles Wesley: A large number of people, I don't see that as being likely.
Charles Wesley: I think what we're going to see more longer term is that because the newer
Charles Wesley: system can, being more modern, can integrate with our existing tools in
Tom Fay: I.
Charles Wesley: new and different ways, or there may be technology or other
Charles Wesley: things that
Charles Wesley: we have not been able to take advantage of because the newer stuff is
Charles Wesley: incompatible with our old system. Those new things now become options to
Charles Wesley: discuss. And so it will be a big change for
Charles Wesley: everybody, especially for folks who have only ever
Charles Wesley: worked in Horizon. So I don't want to minimize that will be
Charles Wesley: a big change. But as far as...
Charles Wesley: you know, how this system compares to other systems.
Charles Wesley: I think it will be a gradual change in many ways and will really, I think,
Charles Wesley: inform longer term discussions and decisions that have yet to happen.
Charles Wesley: This is a first of several steps, realistically.
Ron Chew: Alright, thank you, Charles.
Charles Wesley: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: Of Faith.
Faith Pettis: Yeah, so having been part of organizations,
Faith Pettis: we've all gone through systems changes, right, and know how painful they are.
Faith Pettis: Are you planning on running, I saw the cutover date, are there,
Faith Pettis: is there a period of time you're going to run both systems in parallel to make sure
Faith Pettis: that the new one is behind the scenes and working well before you?
Faith Pettis: Do the cutover.
Charles Wesley: Yeah, and I've been with many organizations who
Charles Wesley: have done these types of migrations, and they all kind of have some of their
Charles Wesley: pain points and opportunities. We won't be able to run these in parallel.
Charles Wesley: It would be ideal if we were able to, but just...
Charles Wesley: With the nature of how these integrate, like with our sorting machine and things
Charles Wesley: like that, like there's not really like parallel
Charles Wesley: systems, and so we're going to, in the in the detailed transition phase,
Charles Wesley: we're going to work through the the minutia,
Charles Wesley: but we're going to really have a transition for.
Charles Wesley: day one on this and then day X on the new system. However,
Charles Wesley: in the training and the QA phase, we're going to be looking at validating
Charles Wesley: as much as we can ahead of time. That's why some of the data mapping and
Charles Wesley: the data work that we're doing now is really important.
Charles Wesley: We're really looking at how can we measure data quality and one of the
Charles Wesley: things that I'm really personally going to be interested in.
Tom Fay: The.
Charles Wesley: digging into with the team is what our test plans look like and how we can
Charles Wesley: validate the outcomes of our tests and to be able to remediate or identify any
Charles Wesley: defects ahead of time. So there's going to be a lot of work that
Charles Wesley: we're going to do to try to mitigate some of these things,
Charles Wesley: but unfortunately we won't be able to run them in parallel.
Faith Pettis: K.
Charles Wesley: be a hard switch from one to the other.
Faith Pettis: So have you given any thought to doing, thank you for that,
Faith Pettis: have you given any thought to doing like a down day and taking everything down for
Faith Pettis: a day or two to make sure it works before it goes back up?
Charles Wesley: Yes, so future updates, we can definitely talk more about this,
Faith Pettis: Oh.
Charles Wesley: but there will be patron impacts that will include a period of time where
Charles Wesley: circulation will be in, for lack of a better word,
Charles Wesley: an offline state. So there will be some transition time.
Charles Wesley: So it won't be like, you know, we close one day and we're on the old
Charles Wesley: system and then I'd open the next day, we're on the new system.
Charles Wesley: There's going to be
Charles Wesley: a period, unfortunately, where our operations will need to be
Charles Wesley: modified to accommodate this. And that in line with what other systems
Faith Pettis: Right, OK.
Charles Wesley: that have migrated from Horizon to Polaris have seen,
Charles Wesley: and we've been speaking with those systems to learn from them about how they
Faith Pettis: Good.
Charles Wesley: handled that.
Faith Pettis: That was going to be my next question. Thank you for anticipating that.
Charles Wesley: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: Thank you.
Charles Wesley: Yep, the benefit of having an older system is
Charles Wesley: that many people have made this journey ahead of us and so we're not blazing a
Charles Wesley: trail, we're following a path.
Tom Fay: I think the important part to note here with the data mapping and all of this and
Tom Fay: the quality assurance components that Charles mentions is that there is a
Tom Fay: sandbox in which this is all being developed and tested on,
Tom Fay: which means that as they pull that data, it's going to, you know,
Tom Fay: it's going to be our real data, so it gives them a chance to actually
Tom Fay: really test it before they start moving it into production.
Yazmin Mehdi: Any other questions, Carmen or Tally?
Yazmin Mehdi: Charles, I think, Faith, thanks for the great questions and Ron.
Yazmin Mehdi: Charles, I think my questions are around the
Yazmin Mehdi: training for staff and the peer training.
Yazmin Mehdi: I suspect the library has done, has utilized this model before.
Yazmin Mehdi: Do you have an example?
Charles Wesley: That's a really good question. So I've been here for roughly 4 1/2 years,
Charles Wesley: and while we have had some major transitions,
Charles Wesley: we have not had a major system transition like this that has had this type of
Charles Wesley: impact other than perhaps when the automated materials handling system came
Charles Wesley: on board, which was just as I was joining the
Charles Wesley: organization. So I wasn't here for the creation of that
Charles Wesley: training, but I
Charles Wesley: I do recall that there was a lot of training and materials that went around
Charles Wesley: adjusting to going from the IA bins, which was one way that material was moved
Charles Wesley: to the totes. So I think that is the most recent
Charles Wesley: example that comes to mind for me, but I don't know, Tom,
Charles Wesley: if you can speak to any other examples.
Tom Fay: I would say that's the largest scale one that we've had recently.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, I can imagine that library staff
Tom Fay: And...
Yazmin Mehdi: appreciate whatever training can be given to them in advance. So that's my only,
Yazmin Mehdi: that's my only sorry, query, I guess, or.
Tom Fay: Yeah, and we will definitely have, you know,
Yazmin Mehdi: Is.
Tom Fay: we'll have that training available post cut as well.
Tom Fay: There's going to need to be refreshers. In my 15 years of library IT,
Tom Fay: I migrated pretty much every vendor out there,
Tom Fay: and guaranteed everybody's going to need a refresher once they get there.
Yazmin Mehdi: Mm.
Tom Fay: Because you know something that's two or three weeks out or a month out,
Tom Fay: when it gets down to those details, it'll be tricky.
Yazmin Mehdi: And especially for professionals whose job is to know stuff or know how to do
Yazmin Mehdi: stuff or how to get information, I'm sure it'll be somewhat disconcerting
Tom Fay: What?
Yazmin Mehdi: to be in this cutover phase. So, but having said that,
Yazmin Mehdi: it does sound like there's a significant track record
Yazmin Mehdi: among other systems and that you guys are doing a great job of understanding and
Yazmin Mehdi: learning from, you know, their experiences. So that's great.
Yazmin Mehdi: And also this is the team that got us through the ransomware attack.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I have high confidence this will this will go well. My last
Yazmin Mehdi: question is about, are we doing, I think Helen's on this call, like,
Yazmin Mehdi: what are we doing around, well, actually, this is probably for a future briefing,
Yazmin Mehdi: but like, I'm sure there are plans around how to
Yazmin Mehdi: bring the public up to speed on this transition and
Yazmin Mehdi: sending out information well before it happens. So anyway, yeah,
Yazmin Mehdi: I see heads nodding. We don't need to talk about that more.
Charles Wesley: Yep.
Charles Wesley: Definitely. Lots of plans. Helen's team, as well as our internal comms and
Charles Wesley: stakeholders, are all anticipating a pretty robust
Charles Wesley: communications plan. And I think what we presented today kind
Charles Wesley: of gives the rough outline and a lot of the details around, you know,
Charles Wesley: how it's going to impact patrons and when it's going to be
Charles Wesley: what's sussed out in, you know, the coming weeks and months.
Charles Wesley: So we look forward to sharing that with folks for sure.
Tom Fay: And Khamis puts out, Khamis puts out an internal kind of
Yazmin Mehdi: That sounds great.
Tom Fay: update on it that is just, it's really a beautiful piece,
Yazmin Mehdi: Mm.
Tom Fay: both succinct but very informative at the same time.
Tom Fay: And I think that's really helping folks out. I know I appreciate it when I see it.
Faith Pettis: Much like his presentation.
Faith Pettis: Thanks.
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: Anyway, thanks Charles and Khamis. Look forward to hearing more.
Yazmin Mehdi: It sounds like it's clicking along well. It's disconcerting to me that it's going
Tom Fay: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: to be ready by Labor Day. That's amazing. Looking forward to it.
Charles Wesley: It's a big, it's been a long, it's been a long time coming and so I
Charles Wesley: think everybody's happy that we're finally in the doing and not the thinking
Charles Wesley: about face. So it's real.
Yazmin Mehdi: Exciting. Thanks, Charles. Thanks, Khamis.
Charles Wesley: Thank you all. Thank you, Miss.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, we are going into old business and
Tom Fay: Play.
Yazmin Mehdi: immediately.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think we'd like to bring Brian for this.
Tom Fay: Hey, Brian, are you there?
Brian Sharkey: Yes, I'm here. Good morning.
Yazmin Mehdi: There he is.
Yazmin Mehdi: So.
Yazmin Mehdi: Tom, do you, I don't think I should preamble this as
Yazmin Mehdi: opposed to you, Tom. So this is a discussion of an edit to the
Yazmin Mehdi: merit and executive leave policy for Tom. He's the only employee affected by this
Yazmin Mehdi: change because this policy only impacts the Executive Director and Chief
Yazmin Mehdi: Librarian.
Yazmin Mehdi: So, Brian, would you mind giving us sort of the
Yazmin Mehdi: lowdown on what this change does?
Brian Sharkey: Sure, yeah. So the proposed change eliminates a
Brian Sharkey: single line of text from the existing policy,
Brian Sharkey: and essentially that line creates a joint cap of PTO between three different kinds
Brian Sharkey: of leave. And so that's executive leave, merit leave, and vacation.
Brian Sharkey: And to Yazmin's point, this is only speaking with respect to Tom
Brian Sharkey: as the Executive Director Chief Librarian.
Brian Sharkey: He's the only one that falls under the jurisdiction of this policy.
Brian Sharkey: So what we had relayed to the board and to Yazmin is that each of these buckets
Brian Sharkey: actually has a separate cap or threshold. So they all have independent caps and
Brian Sharkey: thresholds. Executive leave is 4 days per year.
Brian Sharkey: That's automatically granted as being an FLSA exempt or salaried employee.
Brian Sharkey: Merit leave, of course, is granted by the board and has a maximum
Brian Sharkey: of six days per year that can be granted. So those two combined can have a maximum
Brian Sharkey: of 10. And then vacation RA does have a maximum
Brian Sharkey: balance spelled out in the policy. And so that's every year the Chief
Brian Sharkey: Librarian is granted 30 days.
Brian Sharkey: and then they can carry over up to an additional 15 days of leave,
Brian Sharkey: and there's a maximum total cap of 45 days that the Chief Librarian can carry.
Brian Sharkey: And so each of those individual types of leave has their own cap.
Brian Sharkey: This line that has been proposed to be eliminated takes all three of those.
Brian Sharkey: creates an additional cap that sort of lowers the ceiling on how much balance
Brian Sharkey: somebody can have. So what it means in practice is that for
Brian Sharkey: somebody like Tom, who doesn't take a lot of vacation each
Brian Sharkey: year, when he comes to the end of the year,
Brian Sharkey: when he looks at that carryover amount, he's actually not able to carry over what
Brian Sharkey: the policy allows up to those 15 days.
Brian Sharkey: because of the merit and executive leave award and because of this combined cap.
Brian Sharkey: So putting it simply, eliminating the combined cap allows
Brian Sharkey: things to fall back to the existing individual caps and that would allow for
Brian Sharkey: a slightly larger carry forward or allowing Tom to actually carry forward
Brian Sharkey: the amount that is already allowable under the existing policy.
Brian Sharkey: So hopefully that's not too confusing. Yazmin,
Brian Sharkey: let me know if I can clarify any pieces there.
Yazmin Mehdi: Nope, I think the thing that's worth stating
Yazmin Mehdi: here is that by making this change, the library board can kind of correct a
Yazmin Mehdi: mistake we made in not granting merit leave to Tom in 2025. And it doesn't.
Yazmin Mehdi: change anything but this combined cap that was sort of, in my view, artificial.
Yazmin Mehdi: So does anyone have questions about this edit to the policy? Faith?
Faith Pettis: Can I just make a comment? Is that I think it's an elegant solution
Faith Pettis: to rectify the mistake that we had made, but it only works because Tom is not
Faith Pettis: taking enough vacation. And I would just say, Tom,
Faith Pettis: I encourage you to use your vacation.
Tom Fay: Yes, I definitely would like to use it, so that's not a problem.
Faith Pettis: Okay.
Yazmin Mehdi: Great. Faith makes a good point. So unless there are any questions,
Yazmin Mehdi: what I would like to do is entertain a motion to, let's see,
Yazmin Mehdi: what do we have to do here? I think we just need to approve this edit
Yazmin Mehdi: to the policy.
Yazmin Mehdi: So I would take a motion to approve the policy changes as indicated in the board
Yazmin Mehdi: packet.
Faith Pettis: I'll make that motion.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Faith.
Tali Hairston: Second.
Bendixen, Carmen: Of.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, and second from Tally. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.
Bendixen, Carmen: Bye.
Tali Hairston: Kai.
Ron Chew: Bui.
Yazmin Mehdi: And so that motion passes unanimously and that edit is made to the policy. Great,
Yazmin Mehdi: thank you all. Brian, thank you very much. We'll probably see you later.
Brian Sharkey: Thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Now on to new business. Tom, I guess Jesse,
Yazmin Mehdi: we could bring Jesse in for the union report.
Tom Fay: Yep, absolutely. I think I saw Jesse on page 2 there, yes.
Jessica Lucas: Hi, yes. Thank you for.
Tom Fay: It.
Jessica Lucas: Having me.
Jessica Lucas: Sorry, I just wanted to say that we're just
Jessica Lucas: starting the collective, well, sorry, the interest-based bargaining process,
Jessica Lucas: which is different from traditional bargaining in that we go from a place of
Jessica Lucas: mutual interest and try to find ways to get there that are mutually acceptable
Jessica Lucas: and to the benefit of our members and the library.
Jessica Lucas: So we just had a training on that last, or earlier this week,
Jessica Lucas: and we were fairly successful in that training,
Jessica Lucas: and then we'll continue that in May. So we're hopeful that working together,
Jessica Lucas: we'll be able to get to a very strong and
Jessica Lucas: Equitable contract that makes us all.
Jessica Lucas: have a better starting point and I look forward to that.
Jessica Lucas: I also wanted to say I do appreciate all the communication and I've heard this
Jessica Lucas: from others too about the ILS.
Jessica Lucas: migration, sorry. So thank you for all of that and Charles
Jessica Lucas: and Tom and everyone involved in that. And otherwise, just keep moving forward,
Jessica Lucas: keep building that momentum and the positive changes.
Jessica Lucas: So, thank you very much.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks, Jesse. I wanted to thank you for noting the
Jessica Lucas: Any.
Jessica Lucas: And.
Yazmin Mehdi: importance of the levy and the work that happened at the mayor's level and then in
Jessica Lucas: Mhm.
Yazmin Mehdi: the city council. Having the union support that work is,
Yazmin Mehdi: of course, what do I say, crucial.
Jessica Lucas: Yes.
Yazmin Mehdi: Can't do it without the union, so really appreciate you noting that.
Jessica Lucas: Thank you. Yes, we see a lot of good in this in this levy
Tom Fay: Team.
Jessica Lucas: and we will be encouraging folks to get out there and spread the word.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thank you, Jesse. Appreciate you. Any questions for my colleagues for Jesse?
Jessica Lucas: Thank you. Yep.
Yazmin Mehdi: Good to see you back. It was fun to have Anne as a temporary
Yazmin Mehdi: union rep, but it's good to have you back, Jesse.
Jessica Lucas: Yeah.
Jessica Lucas: Great, thank you so much. Yep, it's good to see you. Bye.
Yazmin Mehdi: Kai.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, and now on to Library Foundation and
Yazmin Mehdi: Friends of the Library update. So, Ron, any updates from the Foundation?
Ron Chew: Nope. I don't think we had a meeting, did we?
Yazmin Mehdi: No meeting.
Ron Chew: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: But I know the foundation was out there doing really important good work.
Yazmin Mehdi: So thank you to the foundation for that.
Ron Chew: Well, and I might just mention, if I might, you know,
Yazmin Mehdi: It's great.
Ron Chew: in terms of the city council and moving the levy bond measure forward,
Ron Chew: I saw a lot of foundation faces and voices, and so that was much appreciated.
Faith Pettis: Yes.
Faith Pettis: The friends have been busy, so they were also very active at the city
Faith Pettis: council meetings, and it was fun to see them and their
Faith Pettis: amazing signs at those meetings. So the friends had a meeting in person,
Faith Pettis: actually, the first in-person meeting in quite some
Faith Pettis: time at their new Georgetown facility, which is where they do their teachers,
Yazmin Mehdi: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: their...
Faith Pettis: Books for Teachers program and that was really fun to be in their venue.
Faith Pettis: They had a little social hour that Tom and I joined and then went into a meeting
Faith Pettis: and it was great to actually meet many of the folks that had been on calls with in
Faith Pettis: person. So that was terrific. A lot of their meeting was spent
Faith Pettis: recapping the levy campaign.
Faith Pettis: And then also, they talked about their financial report
Faith Pettis: for 2025, closing that out, and then some of their other needs going
Faith Pettis: forward. And then as usual, they always talk about their volunteer
Faith Pettis: activities and everything they're involved with,
Faith Pettis: which is so impressive to hear how much they're doing to win friends for the
Faith Pettis: library.
Faith Pettis: Much appreciated. The other thing that they did was they
Faith Pettis: hosted a tour of the MOC, which Yazmin, you referred to earlier,
Faith Pettis: their maintenance and operations center. And I would encourage any other board
Faith Pettis: members who are interested to reach out to their friends to organize a tour.
Faith Pettis: It was fantastic. It was to view their new audit.
Faith Pettis: sort of new automated materials handling system and to learn how the books move
Faith Pettis: from library branch to library branch. And we had a great tour led by the mock
Faith Pettis: lead, Stafford, Jason, and I think his name last name is Lori
Faith Pettis: Chella, is that right?
Faith Pettis: Lunchella.
Faith Pettis: Jason was his first name, but he was just a just a delight,
Tom Fay: Jason.
Faith Pettis: just a bright, happy, engaging person. And you can see how how a team will
Faith Pettis: thrive under him in that in that space. But he took us on a tour and actually put
Faith Pettis: us to work.
Faith Pettis: getting materials out of the bins. There's a bin de-stacker that puts things
Faith Pettis: on this maze of conveyor belts that goes into this big room with all the different
Faith Pettis: branches labeled and different parts of the branches and the books get,
Faith Pettis: the ARFID chips get read and they zip off all over the place and drop into the bins.
Faith Pettis: It's like a big Tetris puzzle that you've got to have people at the right spots,
Faith Pettis: pushing the right buttons and moving books, leveling books in the bins.
Faith Pettis: It was really impressive.
Faith Pettis: And then he took us on a tour of the rest of the facility and showed us the storage
Faith Pettis: areas and the operations places. And then as we also saw the new fleet of
Faith Pettis: electric vehicles and the bookmobiles as well. So highly recommend it.
Faith Pettis: It was a fantastic tour and thanks, big thanks to their friends for.
Faith Pettis: organizing that.
Tom Fay: The manager there is Jason Hayes and Tony. Tony Loricella is the leader.
Faith Pettis: Jason.
Faith Pettis: There we go. There we go. I mixed the needs up. Thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Fay, thanks for that report and again, thanks to the friends.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think I should note that due to, you know, ethics rules,
Faith Pettis: Yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: the library board from here on out cannot really talk about the levy.
Tom Fay: But...
Yazmin Mehdi: now that it will go in front of the voters. But the work that we did,
Yazmin Mehdi: along with the friends and the foundation, was absolutely key and was part of our
Yazmin Mehdi: role to get it through the mayor's office, a brand new mayor,
Yazmin Mehdi: and then through the city council.
Yazmin Mehdi: And again, we didn't do it alone. We had the friends, we had the foundation,
Yazmin Mehdi: we had Tom's remarkable leadership team. So I'd like to just take a moment and
Yazmin Mehdi: celebrate that that has now gone on and we can work on that levy in our personal
Yazmin Mehdi: capacities. So we won't really be able to talk about
Yazmin Mehdi: it very much here in the board meetings, but let's just take a moment and say yay,
Yazmin Mehdi: because so much of what we just talked about today in this short 45 minutes is
Yazmin Mehdi: work that has been funded by
Yazmin Mehdi: the current 2019 levy by the 2012 levy. And you know,
Yazmin Mehdi: we are kind of counting on some of what we would get from the 2026 levy to
Yazmin Mehdi: continue the work that is already underway,
Yazmin Mehdi: including reinforcing unreinforced masonry buildings,
Yazmin Mehdi: and implementing big systems changes. And we didn't even talk about really
Yazmin Mehdi: collections or programs today, but those are also key elements.
Yazmin Mehdi: With that, do any of my colleagues have any other
Yazmin Mehdi: updates?
Yazmin Mehdi: In which case, it's now 1146, and at this time,
Yazmin Mehdi: the Board of Trustees is going to hold an executive session to review the
Yazmin Mehdi: performance of a public employee, Tom Fay. No decisions will be made during this
Yazmin Mehdi: closed session, and I expect this session will conclude
Yazmin Mehdi: at about
Yazmin Mehdi: ideally 1215, but might be a little bit later.
Yazmin Mehdi: The board will now be moved into a private online meeting room.
Yazmin Mehdi: The public meeting will remain connected, but meeting attendees will not be able to
Yazmin Mehdi: view or hear members in executive session. The public portion of the meeting will
Yazmin Mehdi: recommence in approximately
Yazmin Mehdi: 30 to 45 minutes. I hope that's good enough.
Yazmin Mehdi: So we'll see you all in a short while.
Yazmin Mehdi: Ohh, yeah.
Yazmin Mehdi: I think Amy is going to take care of that for us.
Tom Fay: Can you still hear me?
Yazmin Mehdi: Yes.
Tom Fay: Okay, so I'm trying to figure out why I'm not
Tom Fay: out yet, so...
Yazmin Mehdi: Oh, it's people are going.
Tom Fay: Okay.
Yazmin Mehdi: Or maybe people are dropping on their own. Maybe that's what that's happening.
Tom Fay: Yes, K.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Sorry, I'm working on it.
Tom Fay: Eric.
Yazmin Mehdi: Thanks, Amy.
Tom Fay: Okay, now the board can't hear me.
Tom Fay: All right.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Kate Bron is still there. I'm still trying to change Ron.
Tom Fay: Okay.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Hey, Ron, hold tight. We're having a technical difficulty
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: getting you moved into the room.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Okay, I think it worked when we had Ron sign
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: out and sign back in. He should be moving to the room now.
Tom Fay: Okay, great. Thank you.
Tom Fay: Hopefully that helps.
Tom Fay: And one second, let me make sure Amy knows. Amy,
Tom Fay: I think we've got everybody back that was in the session.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: If everybody can see and hear each other, then they should be back.
Tom Fay: Missing.
Faith Pettis: I don't see Tali.
Tom Fay: Tell me, we need to have him leave the room,
Tom Fay: or can you bring him back?
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: I, so everybody should be coming back yet.
Tom Fay: Let me just go check real quick.
Tom Fay: Oh, you did close it? Yeah, it's closed.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Mhm.
Tom Fay: We may have just lost him temporarily.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Did you?
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Yeah, it seems to have bounced out somehow.
Tom Fay: Okay, hopefully he comes.
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Rejoin.
Tom Fay: See, I'll try. I'll go ahead and try to text him real
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Okay.
Tom Fay: quick.
Tom Fay: Right.
Tom Fay: I haven't heard from him yet, but hopefully he will just re-log.
Tom Fay: Or rejoin.
Yazmin Mehdi: Have we heard anything from him?
Tom Fay: No, I'm texting him now. I'm gonna give him a call,
Tom Fay: so bear with me.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay.
Yazmin Mehdi: Well, one thing to note for next time is that
Hybrid Meeting Cart 01: Oh.
Yazmin Mehdi: we need, oh, there he is. Yay, Tally. We do need a little bit more time in
Tali Hairston: Okay.
Yazmin Mehdi: executive session to conduct a performance review of Tom.
Yazmin Mehdi: So for future reference, I'll note that. So right now it is 1250 and I'm calling
Yazmin Mehdi: the public meeting back to order.
Yazmin Mehdi: During the executive session, the board conducted Tom's performance
Yazmin Mehdi: review and discussed compensation, but we made no decisions. However,
Yazmin Mehdi: now that we're back in the public meeting, I would like to entertain a motion from
Yazmin Mehdi: my colleagues to
Yazmin Mehdi: thank Tom for his remarkable and successful work in his short tenure with
Yazmin Mehdi: the Seattle Public Library. And in recognition of the work that he
Yazmin Mehdi: has done and his many successes, the board
Yazmin Mehdi: would like to increase his compensation. In order to come to a figure,
Yazmin Mehdi: we did a market analysis of comparable public library systems,
Yazmin Mehdi: as well as looked at the compensation of other city department heads, and
Yazmin Mehdi: Finally, the other piece that we took into account
Yazmin Mehdi: is that Seattle Public Library employees annually receive wage increases.
Yazmin Mehdi: And we would like to recognize that as a Seattle Public Library employee,
Yazmin Mehdi: Tom 2 should receive those annual wage increases.
Yazmin Mehdi: So we would like to, the motion is to award him annual wage
Yazmin Mehdi: increases over the term of his tenure, going back to when he first became Chief
Yazmin Mehdi: Librarian. And additionally, in recognition of his many successes,
Yazmin Mehdi: we would like to award him a 9. 9% pay increase.
Yazmin Mehdi: So that is the motion on the table.
Yazmin Mehdi: I guess I need somebody else to actually move that motion and then someone to 2nd.
Tali Hairston: I move that we.
Tali Hairston: vote on this motion, but let me qualify, Yazmin,
Tali Hairston: what you said is that this is prospective in terms of going back.
Tali Hairston: It's not retrospective, right? So we're not going back and awarding the
Tali Hairston: increases as if, rather, we're adding that to our current.
Tali Hairston: Matrix for his.
Tali Hairston: Salary.
Faith Pettis: Right.
Yazmin Mehdi: Correct.
Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Faith Pettis: I'll second that motion.
Yazmin Mehdi: It will be.
Tali Hairston: So, OK, thank you.
Yazmin Mehdi: Okay, all in favor, please say aye.
Faith Pettis: Aye.
Tali Hairston: Yeah.
Bendixen, Carmen: Kai.
Yazmin Mehdi: And Ron is unfortunately had to leave before we were able to come back to the
Yazmin Mehdi: public meeting, but he expressed his support for this
Yazmin Mehdi: motion. So that motion passes unanimously and we,
Yazmin Mehdi: I will now entertain a motion to adjourn.
Tali Hairston: Motion to adjourn.
Faith Pettis: I'll make that question.
Yazmin Mehdi: And a second. Okay, all in favor say aye.
Tali Hairston: Thank you.
Faith Pettis: Kai.
Tali Hairston: Kai.
Bendixen, Carmen: Kai.
Yazmin Mehdi: And I will be in Peru in May, so Tally as VP will run the May meeting,
Yazmin Mehdi: and I will see everyone back in June. Thank you, everybody.
Faith Pettis: Thank you for all your work, Yazmin.
Bendixen, Carmen: Yeah, thank you. Have a good one.
Tali Hairston: Thank you, everyone.
Yazmin Mehdi: Kai.